Thanthai Periyar

This book about Periyar, who eradicated caste in Tamil Nadu completely, and earned the name “Socrates of south east Asia”. This book was written by author Bala Jeyaraman who was the common author of Kamaraj.

E.V. Ramaswamy Periyar (wise elder in Tamil) was born to a merchant named Venkata and his mother Chinnathai. His origin was from Kannada and was migrated from Karnataka for their family situation at that time. His parents were from the Naicker caste. His parents had no children even after ten years of marriage and was worshipping God Vishnu (for whom the become devotees later). Then a child was born Krishnaswamy and Ramma swamy. Ramaswamy (Periyar) was known to be naughty and mischievous, importantly very inquisitive, which gave a bad name for him. while his brother Krishnaswamy was known for his self-control and obedience. Ramaswamy was adopted to his father’s distant relative who had no children. But still, he did not keep leave to his naughtiness and mischievousness. His aunty sent him to school for teaching him discipline and obedience but, became naughtier and mischievous. later he was got by his father, and he was dropped out of school and was sent to help his father with his business. He used to do accounts and selling, but the difference of how he was treated thought him about casteism and the bitterness of it. Soon he debated about caste using his sharp mouth, this grew a large circle of friends around him. Then to treat his disobedience to his culture, he was got married by his parents to his distant relative Nagammal. Instead of changing his attitude the marriage made the bride get influenced by Periyar. Later he ran out of his family because and was in a trip to Varanasi. Then he got two Brahmin friends on his way to Kasi. They would beg in the morning and debate in the evening. Soon they were invited to marriage functions for listening to their debate. They lived in a wealthy man’s home then he changed his mind and wanted to go home again. Then while travelling the wealthy man gave him 100₹ for travelling. After spending all that money, he did not have a way to survive except begging for food. There were monasteries that fed the poor. Those monasteries were for only poor Brahmins and was denied when Periyar asked help but, Ramaswamy still searching for monasteries that would feed him. At one point he had no other way for survival except of disguising himself as a Brahmin. Then still he was caught when he struggled to take an early morning dip on the river when it was very cold. After he went away to his own home, he didn’t go there directly, instead he went to his father’s friend MR. Pillai. Then he told Pillai to tell his father that he was back home. Then his father came to pick him up and, he also told that he will hand over all the family affairs. Then after retuning he became member of the erode municipal council and the erode Devasthanam committee chairman. Even if he was reluctant to follow God still, he did not let his belief affect the people’s belief. Then later he became the chairman of the erode municipal council, so this escalated him much higher to the membership in the MPA (madras presidency association formed for defeating the justice party). Periyar held many protests against British and had been respecting Mahatma Ghandhi. He led many anti caste revolts, few very popular revolts are the Cheranmadhevi and the Vaikom protest, in the Cheranmadhevi there was a school treating children differently by caste basis and was funded by the congress, to stop this a big protest happened and congress funds were cut, for the survival of the school the system of caste was abolished. In the Vaikom Shivan temple were the untouchables and other lower caste people were not allowed to even walk in the streets near the temple. The congress campaigned against this and protested for rights of the Dalits while Periyar was busy in campaigning in Tamil Nadu. The king ruling Vaikom resisted this protest and put the protesters in the jail. So, they invited Periyar to take lead on the protest to fight against the king so, Periyar took over the protest, but even he was in jail, so his sister Kannamma and his wife Nagammai took over the protest. The king conducted a prayer against their enemy and to abolish the campaign conducted by Periyar but, ironically their king lost his life. So, the queen had no choice but to resolve the problem of the protest and free the protesters. Later Periyar walked out of the congress party because he thought that there was not enough equal representation given to the non-Brahmins. So, he started the self-respect movement which highly opposes caste system. Justice party members offered Periyar a seat which was denied by Periyar. Then he was admired by the communism, or socialism so to learn about that he travelled the Soviet Union, China and other communist countries and comes back to his homeland again. Then he strongly supported the Communist Party of India) and another communist parties. Then later socialism supporters split from the self-respect movement. Then the self-respect movement started campaigning for the justice party, later he officially joined the justice party. Then later he became the president of the justice party. Then he was campaigning for the justice party in all Tamil speaking nations such as Singapore, Malaysia, Africa, and Sri Lanka. especially on the Sri Lanka protesting for the rights of the Sri Lankan Tamils. Then he made the anti-Hindi agitation because that the chief minister (Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari) had announced compulsory Hindi education for all congress residential schools. Periyar made this protest by taring Hindi letters in government office boards, banners and etc. He was accompanied by the Shaivism followers of Tamil Nadu; they thought Tamil as a divine language and Hindi was to destroy it. Finally, the agitation ended in success and also boosted the position of Annadurai, a collage boy and supported DK. Anna got lot of insults from Periyar and wanted an electoral party so that he could do more good to people so he formed the DMK, but Periyar was not happy with that but he did have lots of decertations in the party before Annadurai. Anna became a natural enemy of Periyar. Then later he declared that if south India was to succeed in equality and other rights of the Tamilan citizens, Tamil Nadu needed a country of its own. Periyar wanted help from the other nationalist who also wanted a country of his own, Muhamad Ali Jinnah and another anti caste revolutionary, DR. B.R Ambedkar and, to meet them he went to Mumbai. Jinnah agreed and supported him, but Ambedkar was a national level patriotic activist. Later Jinnah stopped his support. Then India got independence and the dream of Dravida Nadu was squished and hope was lost. Fortunately, after some time an educational enthusiast K. Kamaraj of Virudhunagar was the chief minister. After when he came to power he built 18 thousand government schools, later the number increased to 50,000 and the mid meal scheme was introduced. Periyar thought he would make Tamil Nadu more developed, then the congress was an enemy of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam( DMK) so Periyar campaigned for Kamaraj voluntarily. Then Kamaraj resigned from the chief minister post and went to Delhi for doing party work. The next chief minister was M. Bhaktavatsalam was not a satisfying chief minister, because there was a food crisis which happened at his rule, so the food rate increased. This made him lose easily and was won by the food price rate where he was criticized a lot. Later the DMK came to rule frequently. Then later Periyar started supporting the DMK, where he was the mentor of it. After that Annadurai lost his life and the government was handed over to Karunanidhi and Karunanidhi did many good deeds things to support Periyar’s ideologies such as giving right to anybody to become a priest at the temple. Then M.G.Ramachandhran who was a former actor and is a treasurer, later he had some quarrels with Karunanidhi, whom to become the chief minister. Then M.G.R went out of the party to form a new party called All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Periyar stubbornly opposed it and was very angry with him. Then he also became the mentor of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Then Periyar breathed his last breath in the Vellore medical college. But even though his death the idea of reforming India still lives in the heart of every one in the current dravidar kazhagam.